


You Said You Would Let Them Go

by Callaeidae3



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Blood and Injury, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Shiro (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Sensory Deprivation, Shiro (Voltron) Whump, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-09-01 08:01:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16761184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callaeidae3/pseuds/Callaeidae3
Summary: BTHB: You Said You Would Let Them GoShiro finds out what an idiot he was to think they'd let Keith go. Shiro's POV of When You Can't Get Away From It (BTHB: Tied to a Pole).





	You Said You Would Let Them Go

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by @rangergirl3! :) You can find the bingo card I'm writing this from on my Tumblr @callaeidae3!
> 
> Set early Season 2

The cuts on Shiro’s back sting and burn and bleed. If he counted correctly, the whip came down forty-seven times. Not one of them was loud or painful enough to make him utter a word.

He’s been left alone for the last however long. Maybe the interrogator is hoping that the stress position will wear him out. He’d seemed rather disappointed in his failure to tempt Shiro to speak, so maybe he’s gone to get something else to torture him with.

It’s all he thinks about. That, staying strong… and Keith.

They’d almost been captured. Well, Keith had been, but he should be back at the Castle now since Shiro traded himself in. There’s no way he’s about to let his younger brother be tortured. No way in hell. If Shiro has to suffer in his place then he’ll gladly do so.

That’s not to say it doesn’t hurt. His shoulders are strained, wrists cuffed and arms pulled up behind as far as they’ll go. There’s no give in the chains holding him there and the band clamped around his prosthetic arm prevents him from getting free.

It hurts and it’s bad and Shiro’s close to being overwhelmed by the flashbacks assailing him, but none of it gets to him more than what the interrogator brings through the door, though.

Keith.

He’s blindfolded, dragged in by two foot soldiers holding each of his arms in a vice grip. Shiro calls out to him but he doesn’t seem to hear, just walks blindly into the pole the soldiers lead him to, face turned in Shiro’s direction as the soldiers begin binding his arms.

Shiro can’t hide the fear in his voice now. “Keith!”

He’s got earplugs in. Keith’s got ear plugs in, and yet he swallows, brow furrowing behind the material pulled over his eyes. Sensory deprivation, but Shiro can tell Keith knows that he’s in the room with him.

They’re going to torture them both at once.

“I traded myself in,” Shiro protests. “You said you’d let him go!”

Keith’s forearms are bound wrist to elbow, his wrists then tied above his head to the pole. He shifts his feet and tries to pull away but there’s no room for him to move while hugging the pole tied up like that.

Pulling out a knife, the interrogator smirks. “And you believed me?”

It’s too late to be calling himself an idiot. It’s too late for that. Shiro breathes hard, trying to control his panic.

“Champion. Leader of Voltron. Black Paladin. I thought you’d be better aware.”

So far Keith looks relatively unharmed. His flight suit isn’t torn, and besides the missing armour and his sight and hearing being taken away, it doesn’t look like they’ve done anything to him – yet. But that’s what he’s here for. That’s why he’s tied to a pole, why the interrogator has a knife and is warning Shiro that he’ll hurt the Red Paladin as much as is required for Shiro to talk.

Talking is tempting now, but he can’t…

But Keith…

“Shiro, I’ll be fine.”

_Oh no, no… don’t…_

“D-don’t say anything,” Keith stammers. “I can handle it.”

_You don’t know that. You don’t know what they’ll do to you._

The interrogator frowns and gestures to one of the foot soldiers who wordlessly pulls a thick strip of cloth out of his pocket. Shiro’s heart sinks further than it already has.

Keith continues on, unaware. “I’ll be fine. Whatever happens, don’t worry about me. Just stay strong. We’ll get through this. We just have to horrhgmm-!”

No time is wasted gagging him. The soldier deftly ties it and goes back to standing at the side of the room with his companion. With one knowing glance at Shiro, the interrogator steps forward and lays a hand on Keith’s shoulder.

Shiro sucks in a breath. He sees Keith squeeze his eyes shut behind the blindfold, sees him trying so hard not to react. The interrogator looks over at Shiro and laughs.

The knife is next. Cold fear grips Shiro’s heart, but it’s a different kind of horror that fills him when the interrogator grabs Keith’s collar and uses the knife to cut a tear across his shoulders through his flight suit.

Keith’s breathing quickens. He bites down hard on the gag, nostrils flaring. The interrogator rips the material of the flight suit off his back and Shiro shudders, thinking of the state of his own back – only that was with a whip and now the interrogator has a _knife._

As it turns out, the knife isn’t even needed.

The interrogator – _curse him to the infinity of the nearest black hole in the universe –_ strokes Keith between the shoulder blades. Keith flinches. The terrified whimper he makes when he struggles in vain to get free and can’t, when the interrogator moves his hand in an almost caressing manner over Keith’s shoulders, down his back, up his spine to the back of his neck…

Shiro swears.

The home Keith used to stay at before he was accepted into the Garrison… he was touched like that, right after being hit and smacked over and over again over something as stupid and small as being late to the dinner table. If he stayed still and accepted the punishment, the adults beating and shouting at him would then reward him with ‘kind’ touch.

That Keith either trusted Shiro enough to let him give the kid hugs was a miracle in its own.

And now this. Now he’s having to relive that nightmare all over again.

Keith jerks to the side but hardly moves. He’s crying, sobbing, and the cloth in his mouth doesn’t do much to muffle it. His voice pitches close to a scream as the interrogator starts stroking his hair, then it cuts out completely and Shiro is less than a minute away from being sick.

Hunk barrels into the room before that happens.

With a swipe to the side of the head with Hunk’s bayard, the interrogator’s out cold. Pidge ducks under the swing of the handheld cannon and darts over to Keith. Hunk deactivates his bayard as Pidge activates hers.

“Hang on, Shiro,” she yells, cutting through the rope tying Keith’s arms to around the pole.

Hunk catches Keith as his knees buckle and he falls backwards. Pidge moves across the room in a flash to sever the chains restraining Shiro. Shiro keeps his eyes fixed on Keith as Hunk removes the gag and the blindfold and, finally, the earplugs.

Keith doesn’t take it well. He blinks hard and then promptly vomits. Hunk holds him off the floor as he does. Pidge holds Shiro up, too, as she sears through the lock of the manacles which also link to the chains. The sounds of Keith hurling and screaming and sobbing all at once are worse than the screeching of Pidge’s bayard slicing through the chains.

Outside the room, in the hallway, Lance’s bayard stops firing. Shiro ceases the opportunity to call out to Keith, but Keith is so out of it Shiro’s not sure his voice reaches him. Pidge gets his free but all Shiro can do is crash face-first into floor, Pidge muttering an apology and shakily getting the clamp off his arm.

“Guys,” Lance yells, “it’s clear! Let’s go.”

Neither Keith nor Shiro are in much of a walking state. Hunk picks Keith up in his arms and Pidge helps Shiro up to his feet with his prosthetic arm slung across her shoulders. She takes some of his weight for him without complaint and gets him walking past the knocked out interrogator and out of the room.

The run back to the Lions is a blur in his memory. Shiro mumbles the whole way back, not really registering when Pidge lets go of him to take down a sentry and then lets him lean on her again as they go back to running. He forgets about the blood all over his back and the throbbing pain emanating from where the whip struck. He forgets about the dizziness creeping over him and the adrenaline and the sick anxiousness overwhelming him.

All he can focus on is Keith.

Lance and Hunk drop them off to the Green Lion before making for their own Lions. Pidge finds the emergencies supply cupboard before she takes to the pilot’s seat. Her face pales when she sees Shiro’s back and the creepy way in which Keith stares wide-eyed at nothing.

She opens her mouth to say something but ends up not finding anything to say.

Pidge gives them both blankets, taking care to drape them over each of their backs. Shiro hisses as the emergency blanket brushes the welts and Keith flinches when Pidge’s hands touch his shoulders when wrapping the softer blanket around him. Other than that, Keith doesn’t react – to anything.

Shiro’s shaking, for himself but mostly for Keith. He wishes for the protection of their paladin armour, then remembers Hunk saying that Allura took it back to Yellow. He then remembers that his back is wounded and that having anything pressed against his back right now is a bad idea.

 _It’s the blood loss_ , a voice in the back of his mind tells him.

It wants him to lie down and rest, sleep even. Green's cool and soothing and the adrenaline rush is leaving him feeling weaker than the stress position left him, but…Keith. He’s got to stay awake for Keith.

As they approach the Castle, Shiro’s finding it hard to keep his eyes open, but Keith’s gaze isn’t so wide-eyed now either. The fright is ebbing from him, slowly, slowly, but there’s a calm settling over him that wasn’t there before.

_Red._

As soon as Green lands and the movement of the Lion stills, Shiro crawls across the floor to Keith and offers his arms. Keith collapses into his chest.

That’s the last thing Shiro remembers before passing out.


End file.
